Indian Football: Indian national team rise to 96th in FIFA rankings

Ashwin Muralidharan

06/07/2017 ShareCloseComments

AIFF Media

India have now reached their highest FIFA ranking under Stephen Constantine...

Indian national football team has continued its impressive climb up the ranking ladder to be placed 96th in the world as per the latest Federation International de Football Association (FIFA) Rankings update.

India have risen by four spots after their impressive showing during the international break in June when they notched up a 2-0 friendly win over Nepal and a 1-0 win over Kyrgyzstan in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers group match.

India currently have 341 rating points, an increase of 10 from their previous tally. India also profited from Namibia who plummeted an astonishing 62 spots from 94 to be ranked 156. The best mover in this edition of the rankings is Andorra who jumped 57 spots to be ranked 129th.

As far as Asia is concerned, India are the 12th highest ranked team in the continent while Iran leads the chart at 23rd spot.

India were ranked 171st in the world when Stephen Constantine took charge of the team for a second term back in February 2015. But the Englishman has overseen a dramatic rise in the fortunes of the Blue Tigers who have returned several important results of late and are poised to seal qualification to the 2019 AFC Asian Cup.

Reflecting on the achievement, Constantine said, "I had mentioned that my target was to bring India below 100. I am happy to have played a small part in this process."

It certainly is a feather in the cap for everyone associated with the national team. However, it falls just short of India's highest ever FIFA ranking which was 94, achieved back in February 1996.

Confederations Cup champions Germany have overtaken Brazil to be ranked the top team in the world and are followed by Argentina at thrid spot, Portugal and Switzerland.